So now the sport approaches "the most popular ticket in racing," the Volunteer 500 at Bristol. Given the steady decline in TV ratings from last year, though, this "most popular ticket in racing" may not live up to the ratings hype. It certainly never lives up to its status as "the most popular ticket in racing."
Yes, it sells out, but why it sells out is something of a mystery, because of all the races in the sport Bristol may be the worst oval race. The half-mile concrete skating rink is famous for nonstop crashing, which draws attention away from the track's lack of passing. Of course quite a few people are wondering if Bristol will see a rematch between Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards after Junior hammered Edwards into Robby Gordon and into a spin at Michigan's BGN Yankee 250. Edwards rammed Junior on the cool-down lap, which earned a fine and a lecture in NASCAR's trailer afterwards, and no doubt a lot of people, especially those inside Speedway Motorsports Inc., are hoping for a rematch.
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The other big issue entering Bristol is the Car Of Tomorrow, slated to debut next April here. It has undergone another round of testing, this one at Michigan, and the usual comments about the car running well by itself are coming out with little in the way of indication that the COT can run well in dirty air. The angle on this test was the debut of Toyota's Winston Cup entry as Michael Waltrip hit the track and wailed to all within earshot about how roomy the inside of the car is.
Waltrip and the others involved with Toyota are about the only ones looking forward to Toyota's debut in Winston Cup, as the Trucks continue to show the monopoly Toyota is building in NASCAR competitive circles, a monopoly unaddressed by NASCAR.
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The Lucky Dog rule has gotten some sharp observation lately, as Kyle Busch was allowed to make up five laps because of the Lucky Dog at Watkins Glen and Jimmie Johnson made up two laps at Michigan. The absurdity of the rule and the rule freezing the field becomes more and more apparant with each passing race, as we'd already seen several dramatic finishes aborted by freezing the field before the advent of the Green-White-Checker finish rule at the Winston Cup level, and even with GWC there have been finishes (notably Talladega in October 2005) where a race-deciding pass in the final half-mile was aborted because of a yellow.
NASCAR's well-known myopia on matters like this still needs to be broken, and the Race-Stream Media needs to snap out of their own doldrums and start taking NASCAR to task for rules like these that are fundamentally wrong.
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